1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the management of services provided in a transport network, in particular a telecommunication network.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The same telecommunication service can use more than one stream of data. This is known in the art. For example, a video on demand (VoD) service comprises a video only data stream and an audio data stream. Each of the data streams is transported in accordance with specific protocols and can be managed differently by some transport network elements.
It is nevertheless clear that in some cases the service may require synchronization between the data streams providing it.
In some cases the synchronization problem can be overcome relatively easily. Synchronizing the packets of a data stream leads to an offset in the reception of the packets, which can be corrected by means of a buffer system.
On the other hand, desynchronization between the data streams (packet throughput) leads to drift, i.e. an increase in the desynchronization between packets, making this impossible for prior art solutions to correct.
In the example of video on demand, it is therefore necessary for the audio data stream and the video data stream to be sufficiently synchronized to provide a good quality of service on reception.
The service management system must therefore be able to determine if two data streams are synchronized or not. It must therefore have access to a method of measuring this.